Pages

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Running and A Few Roadrunner Projects

It took me a while to get going, but I went for a run again. I have been running consistently since we returned from Tennessee last week and I can feel my stamina increasing.

Last week I ran 3 minutes, walked 1 minute and kept that up around the 2.9 mile campground road system and finished up walking 8 minutes to cool down and stretch again. This week I increased the running to 4 minutes, then walking 1 and it seems to be OK. My goal is to run 8 min, walk 1 min and then pick up the pace. Then I will take on more distance.

I know of people who have run marathons doing the 8/1 interval thing and hope to get up to a half-marathon (13.1 mi) one day. Years ago (back in the day...) I ran four marathons (26.2 mi). Over the years age, injury, laziness, lack of motivation etc have overtaken my running. But who knows? Maybe things will change if I keep it up.

After running, it seemed as if yesterday was our day to get a few projects done. Two days ago we bought a bike hitch that sits vertically off the RV tow hitch. We have tried a hitch off the back of the toad (Honda). They seemed to get really wet and bounce a lot back there.

We also tried putting the bikes in the back of the Honda when we travel. We have had the Honda only a year and I am afraid it is getting a little beat up moving bikes in and out of it. So we are giving this solution a try.

The hitch on the rear of the RV looks like it will give pretty good protection compared to hanging off the back of the Honda which we also tried for a while. I like the two locking mechanisms on the hitch. With the protective bike bag, it should all work well. We will see.

After that, I patched up the hole in the basement ceiling around some pipes and cords. Quite a few months back I was trying to get to a leak in the shower and chipped away the foam insulation that was there and never re-filled it.

We were thinking maybe our mouse friend entered the coach through this gap in our defenses but I don't know how it could have gotten into the basement in the first place? Nevertheless, I sprayed the foam and filled the empty spaces in the area.

That was a messy job. I used disposable gloves and tried to move the foam around but it was a gooey mess. We will see what it looks like later to find out if more work is needed there.

Next, we put a temporary fix on the window handle in our 'dining room'. The metal handle/locking mechanism separated from the window a while back when we tried to open it. I called the Tiffin factory and they suggested I use GE silicone on it. Pam scraped off the old adhesive and put the new stuff on.

We only need it to last a couple of months and then we are going to Red Bay to get the windows replaced. Back in January, we spoke with the CEO, Bob Tiffin, and he said he would replace the double-paned windows which have fogging issues.

Next, it was time to attack our mouse problem. I figure it is 0-5 so far with the mouse winning. His tracks were on a sticky trap we have under the sink. That didn't seem to work.

It was supposed to catch him but he escaped with ease. Now we are trying the old fashioned spring loaded trap to see if we can entice him. To be continued...

In the late afternoon we went over to Rod and Lisa's. We haven't seen those guys for a number of weeks so it was great to share a meal and catch up. We always love hanging around them and they have made us feel quite welcome of the past few months. It was another good evening again.

We got back in time to go straight to bed and get ready for another beautiful day here at Haas Lake RV park. Hope you are having a good week and thanks for stopping by the Roadrunner Chronicles!

7 comments:

I really like the bike hitch...please let us know how that works. We haven't bought bikes yet so we haven't bought a bike hitch. This could save us from buying wrong.My brother (Larry) is an avid runner. He has ran in many marathons here and overseas. He's in his 60s so he says dropping to a different age bracket has helped his run, LOL. Don't you hate it when the "mouse team" is winning! Hang in there, I still put my money on the traps. You'll get him!

Good move on going back to the original mouse trap - it will work, they always do. I admire your determination in getting back into running again. I often think about it but that's as far as I ever get. I do like the walking part though! Good job on getting all those projects done too.

Hey Randy, a word of caution on the bike rack. I have one of those and tried it on back of our coach and even with using extra padding the bikes scuffed up the paint on the back of the coach. I to use to be a runner and wish I could still be out there but I have to settle for the walking part. Slow and Steady my friend. Gummy

We had that same hitch on the back of our rig for a couple trips & it worked fine. Problem was that we didn't use the bikes enough whenever we got to where we were going & by the third year we just gave up on taking the bikes. Never had any trouble with the bikes scraping the back of the rig but the bikes sure rubbed against each other a lot. I always made sure to have 3 separate locking devices all wrapped around the bikes & that saved them from being stolen one night in Roswell NM while we slept inside.

We carry bikes and put them on the ladder. Dave made a piece out scrap metal and U-bolts that keeps the bikes from scratching the motorhome. Sometimes he takes the tires off and puts the bikes inside our Honda CRV. That takes up a lot of space, but then we have the bikes with us if we want them. We also carry a bike rack for the car so that we can transport them that way, but we don't travel with them on the car. We haven't found a solution to keep the bikes dry, though, except for putting them inside the car.

Thanks for posting the bike rack install pics. We have to find a solution too. Not sure that's gonna work on our 5th wheel. I'm going to have to show Jonathan your pics and see if he thinks it will work for ours....